Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Blood Boiling Fire Path
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Long ago, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had been thoroughly crushed by the alliance of the righteous martial world and the imperial army. Abandoning their sacred land of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, they undertook a massive migration spanning thousands of li.
Sometimes heading north, sometimes west. Their grueling march crossed mountains, rivers, fields, and lakes.
No matter how much they were hounded by the government and the martial world, the might of the world's supreme sect didn't just vanish. Along the way, they displayed their ruthless nature by wiping out the Kunlun Sect in Qinghai merely for getting in their way. The second homeland they found at the end of that journey was the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang was originally a frontier beyond the Central Plains geographically.
The massive cult once called the overlord of the martial world, aspiring to conquer all under heaven and hailed as the reincarnation of Taiping Dao, was ultimately driven to the far west.
And the one who ushered in a new era of prosperity for the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult in Xinjiang was Hyeokryeon Jin-il, the Blood Heaven Divine Demon, the eighteenth Heavenly Demon and the world's greatest master three hundred years ago.
As his moniker suggested—with blood, heaven, divine, and demon all in one—the Blood Heaven Divine Demon was just as mad as any Heavenly Demon before him.
An absolute realm expert, he slaughtered all three absolute masters of the Central Plains at the time. He single-handedly stormed the Yuan imperial palace, massacred the royal guards, and assassinated the Khan—acts so beyond mortal comprehension from this unpredictable absolute being.
Even to the cultists who revered him as a human god descended to the mortal world, he was an enigmatic figure.
The Blood Heaven Divine Demon, the strongest Heavenly Demon since the first and one who enjoyed absolute authority as his reincarnation, was said to have ascended to immortality, leaving behind only a single manual detailing his unique martial art.
I'd read that in the historical records from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's library when I visited at the Heavenly Demon's invitation, so it might not be entirely accurate. As if some non-Taoist thug was going to ascend to heaven.
But his strength was a verified fact, recorded in countless histories.
The manual he left was stored in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's library, and to this day, no one had succeeded in fully mastering the Blood Heaven Divine Demon's art—the world's greatest at the time.
Until I opened that book.
The manual included annotations from past Heavenly Demons and elders posing questions and explanations. Summarizing them, it boiled down to this:
'The true energy circulation paths are all twisted in reverse. How the hell are we supposed to do this?'
'Is this some code left by the predecessor? Do we have to solve it to prove we're worthy of the art?'
The moment I looked at the manual, I had to question the intelligence of all those so-called Heavenly Demons.
The true energy paths ran in reverse? It just meant circulating internal energy backward.
They'd puzzled over something this simple for three hundred years and faceplanted. That said it all about their caliber.
'No wonder a girl not even twenty blew their brains out.'
[This Seat is simply too strong.]
The Blood Heaven Divine Demon was born a cripple with his entire body's blood and qi flowing backward congenitally. In more elegant terms, it was called the Reverse Blood Body.
He hadn't wanted his descendants to prove their worth or solve codes. He'd simply recorded his art as it fit his body.
In short, the Blood Heaven Divine Demon's martial art was a cripple's art made for a cripple's body.
And I...
[Marko, you...]
Was the world's biggest cripple.
The Mountain King stared at Hyeonseong with eyes wide open.
His enhanced vision, sharpened like that of a hawk or eagle through his Weisinmu Mountain Beast Great Evil, took in Hyeonseong's body completely.
'I can't see him.'
A gray internal energy barrier, like smoke, enveloped Hyeonseong's body. Protective Sword Gang.
'But how?'
Hyeonseong's internal energy had clearly been depleted.
He'd been driven to the brink of death against the Mountain King after he unleashed Weisinmu, struggling even to coat his thin blade with sword qi.
And he'd taken a direct hit from a gang-infused attack, so his blood and qi throughout his body must have been thrown into chaos.
Yet suddenly, he'd cloaked his entire body in gang. Had he been holding back his internal energy until now?
The Mountain King's pupils trembled—a rare sight. At that moment, Hyeonseong's lips moved.
"......I."
I've never once clung to life in all my days.
His words didn't reach him, drowned out by the gush of blood he vomited while bowing his head.
But Hyeonseong pressed on regardless.
"Yet against you... I just can't... die."
Because...
"There are too many deaths... under my feet."
Hyeonseong raised his lowered head.
Blood tears streamed from his left eye down his cheek. His mouth and nose were smeared with blood from burst vessels.
Amid the gray protective gang, scarlet steam rose.
The extreme fire yang energy was evaporating his blood.
Like a crimson dragon ascending through thunderclouds—the sight made the Mountain King's muscles tense instinctively.
In that instant, Hyeonseong charged like a scarlet meteor.
A scarlet gang orb formed in Hyeonseong's half-open palm.
Kwadeuk—! It ground through the wolf-head upper jaw protruding from the Mountain King's left arm, wrapping around his elbow.
The golden claw technique personally devised by Wudang Sect founder Jang Sam-bong.
Twisting joints and snapping bones—it unfolded from Hyeonseong's hands cloaked in blood gang.
"Hup!"
The Mountain King was a battle-hardened middle-aged powerhouse. His response was swift.
He focused internal energy into his forearm like a splint to brace it.
'This way, he can't break—'
Wududuk—! The sound of the Mountain King's joints shattering echoed.
Hyeonseong leaped nimbly like a weasel, wrapping his legs around the Mountain King's thick neck and yanking his arms with full-body muscle power to snap them. A primal form of the golden claw using his entire body.
"Keurgh...!"
The Mountain King let out a guttural groan and swung his broken arm to shake Hyeonseong off.
Floating in midair, Hyeonseong clasped his hands together and murmured.
Wings of gang extended from the acupoints near his shoulder blades, stretching like whips to ensnare the Mountain King's arms and legs.
The wings shortened rapidly, pulling Hyeonseong's body hurtling toward the Mountain King.
Eujek! Bending his legs, Hyeonseong smashed the tiger-head protruding to block him with his knee.
The nameless divine art left by the Blood Heaven Divine Demon, later named Blood Sea Mist Radiance, was fundamentally a gang art.
It collided amplified inner power with blood and yang qi to spread a mist of blood across the battlefield, then used profound martial principles to generate gang that annihilated foes—an unparalleled divine technique.
Legends said the Blood Heaven Divine Demon dyed the heavens red with it and reshaped the terrain with barrages of feather-shaped gang orbs from his six blood wings.
All possible thanks to his immense energy reserves.
But Hyeonseong didn't deploy the Blood Heaven Divine Demon's art as is.
From the start, massive energy blasts firing gang everywhere weren't his specialty, even in his past life.
He took only the formulas for reverse-circulating blood and internal energy to amplify power and manifesting gang through blood as medium, then reworked the rest to fit his body and martial level.
The Blood Sea Mist Radiance gang art was reborn in Hyeonseong's hands as the cave art and close-quarters technique, Blood Boiling Fire Path.
Cloaked in overflowing inner power in his muscles and ceaselessly surging gang, Hyeonseong unleashed hundreds of forms from dozens of fist and palm techniques flooding his mind without pause.
"Kuhuk...!"
The beasts conjured by Weisinmu dispersed one by one, and the Mountain King—his protective gang shattered, taking hits— was already covered in blood.
A few bandits nearby couldn't stand it and rushed in, but a single step from Hyeonseong's formation sent them tumbling with blood spraying from their mouths.
"You monster...!"
Curses erupted from the gritted teeth of the bandits.
To them, Hyeonseong—smeared in blood, moving like a beast, brutalizing their total chieftain—looked no different from a demon.
Bandits from other strongholds, gathered on Gong Tae-gun's orders, shrank back in fear, while those from Mountain King Stronghold—under his direct command—gripped their weapons with resolute faces.
Ready to take Hyeonseong down with them if needed.
"Stop!!!"
At that moment, the Mountain King—clutching his caved-in side, breathing raggedly—roared hoarsely.
"......My subordinates were rude. Forgive them."
His pallid face forced a smile as he reached out to his men.
A massive axe was placed in the Mountain King's hand.
"We'll settle it with one clash. Frontal exchange of lives."
At his glance, another subordinate tossed a hand axe to Hyeonseong.
He caught it effortlessly, lowering his stance and regulating his breath. A silent agreement was struck.
Soon, a deep blue glow coated the Mountain King's axe blade.
Goooo... Gang compressed so densely it sucked in surrounding natural qi.
The moment a drop of blood from Hyeonseong's chin hit the dirt and burst.
Kkigigik—! The massive axe blade tore space as it swept horizontally.
In the Mountain King's vision—lashing out to pulverize all obstacles between life and death—a bizarre sight unfolded.
Hyeonseong's body seemed sucked into the small hand axe—an illusion.
And the next instant, Hyeonseong was behind the Mountain King, arms locked tightly around his waist.
He'd vanished from sight only to reappear outside it.
Even Gong Tae-gun, leader of the unorthodox sects, briefly suspected sorcery.
"Body-Switching Position...?"
"Not that impressive."
A nonchalant reply to the natural question slipping from his lips.
The next moment, Gong Tae-gun's body lifted into the air.
Hyeonseong's waist muscles swelled massively under internal energy, uprooting the Mountain King's huge frame from the ground.
After countless strikes, he'd realized it.
The Mountain King's body was filthy tough.
His Weisinmu produced protective gang, showing Gong Tae-gun favored defensive styles.
And Hyeonseong knew how to handle tough opponents well.
Whether monsters or humans, tough things surrounded him.
The Heavenly Demon alone was the only human to reach the Vajra Indestructible realm.
But among the Three Heavens Seven Absolutes, his past-life comrades, one was tougher than even her.
Vajra Body, Indestructible Form.
A fist fighter who couldn't even form fist gang or qi, yet substituted for zero internal energy with a body defying common sense—a monstrous monk.
Her indestructibility wasn't a martial achievement like the Heavenly Demon's but innate constitution.
In raw physical hardness and pure strength, surpassing even the Heavenly Demon, the world's strongest powerhouse once lifted and flipped a massive turtle yokai carrying dozens of mountains on its shell.
Hyeonseong's body—all internal energy converted to power—recreated that mythic scene on a smaller scale.
Kwaaaaang! Hyeonseong's waist bent like a bow, and the Mountain King's body—flung sky-high—crashed headfirst with a thunderous boom.
A massive crater formed like a meteor impact, dirt erupting and scattering on the wind.
The bandits unleashed palm winds to clear the dust.
When the thick soil cleared, the one standing on two feet was none other than Hyeonseong.
His body-covering protective gang had vanished, revealing wounds everywhere, and the blood steam rising from them had faded.
The Blood Boiling Fire Path's duration had perfectly timed out.
Staggering forward, Hyeonseong looked up at the sky.
"I..."
His burst lips, bleeding, moved faintly.
"Won..."
His blurred but firm declaration silenced the surroundings.
Even the Mountain King Stronghold bandits, ready to desperately aid their chieftain, were overwhelmed and frozen in place.
"I... won..."
Finally, Hyeonseong rolled his eyes back and collapsed to the ground.
Aged 14—
'Grandfather. This guy's smiling?'
'Leave him be. He's probably having a good dream. Wake him and it turns into a disaster, so stay back.'
What the fuck.